The WallVietnam Veterans Memorial · The Lake Norman Brief
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967.
Soldiers of the 196th Light Infantry Brigade wait for a UH-1D during Operation Junction City, 1967. Photo: U.S. Army, public domain. Shown for the time and place, not a photograph of James Gilbert McWhirter.

The Wall › Panel 52W › Illinois › James Gilbert McWhirter

JAMES GILBERT MCWHIRTER

Specialist Four · U.S. Army

March 13, 1949 – July 14, 1968

Service record

James Gilbert McWhirter, of Crossville, Illinois, served as a Specialist Four in the U.S. Army. He died on July 14, 1968, in Phuoc Tuy Province, South Vietnam, at age 19. His name is inscribed on Panel 52W, Line 30 of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial.

On the Wall

Panel 52W · Line 30

Position of Panel 52W on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial

Names are inscribed in the order of loss, starting at Panel 1E at the apex and ending at Panel 1W. At the Memorial, find the panel number at the base and count down from the top line.

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Service

Branch
U.S. Army
Rank
Specialist Four (SP4)
Service
Regular
Occupation
Quarrying Specialist (62G)
Unit (as recorded)
544 ENG CO 79 ENG GRP 20 ENG BDE
Born
March 13, 1949
Home of record
Crossville, Illinois (White County)

Casualty

Date of death
July 14, 1968
Age
19
Province
Phuoc Tuy
Country
South Vietnam
Casualty type
Non-hostile
Category
Accident
Circumstance
Other Accident

Context · from the records

What was happening

36 names on the Wall carry the date July 14, 1968; two of them were lost in Phuoc Tuy Province. In July 1968, 993 Americans whose names are on the Wall died in the war.

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On the Wall

Elsewhere

Also on Panel 52W, Line 30

Source. U.S. Department of Defense, Defense Casualty Analysis System, Vietnam Conflict Extract Data File (as of April 29, 2008), Records of the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Record Group 330, National Archives (NAID 2240992). Panel and line as recorded in that file. This page presents the official record and its historical context; no biography has been written for him yet. See something wrong? Report a correction.